Call it the rebuttal to the rebuttal. Carl Icahn on Wednesday fired off his second open letter to eBay shareholders this week, reiterating a call for the ouster of board members Marc Andreessen and Scott Cook and once again demanding the company spin off its PayPal unit. Apparently he was unmoved by CEO John Donahoe’s e-commerce tutorial outlining exactly why the spin-off isn’t in the cards nor the company’s immediate and dismissive response to Monday’s missive.
Carl Icahn does not back out of a fight easily. Yesterday, he wrote a strong letter to eBay EBAY +2.19% shareholders accusing eBay’s board members (Marc Andreessen and Scott Cook) of placing their interests ahead of shareholders, and competing directly against eBay. Icahn also criticized eBay CEO John Donahoe calling him “completely asleep or, even worse, either naïve or willingly blind to lapses by the board.” Icahn, who owns 2% of eBay, wants two board seats, and is pressing eBay to spin off its valuable, fast-growing PayPal unit. Ebay responded with a letter of its own stating: “Carl Icahn has cherry-picked old news clips and anecdotes out of context to attack the integrity of two of the most respected, accomplished and value-driven technology leaders in Silicon Valley.”
